LAKEWOOD, Colo. (KDVR) — April 25 marks five years since a truck driver lost control of his semitrailer on Interstate 70, causing a fiery explosion and crash that killed four people and injured many others.
Loved ones of the victims sat down with FOX31 to reflect on their efforts to make trucking safer. Currently, the Colorado Department of Transportation is wrapping up a safety project surrounding the emergency escape ramp the trucker passed before the deadly crash.
In the house Gage Evans and Bill Bailey made together, pictures and projects serve as daily reminders of the partner she’s been missing for five years now.
“He was my guy, he made me laugh every day,” Evans said. “He was heading home and he had just finished a morning of flying his RC planes.”
William “Bill” Bailey was killed at 67 years old: the age Evans is now.
“What’s hard for people to understand is the violence and the trauma that happens with a truck crash,” Evans said.
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When Evans reflects on that fateful day, she thinks about the truck driver’s path and decisions, details she learned much more about years later during the trial in 2021.
“His driving was faulty, he didn’t know how to drive in the mountains and he burned out his brakes and he did not use the runaway truck ramp,” Evans said, adding: “I want people to remember that this crash was not an accident.”
Evans is turning her pain into purpose, serving as an advocate with the Truck Safety Coalition in hopes of saving other families.
“Twice I’ve been to D.C. to talk to legislators about truck safety issues,” she said. “We have found that the best thing we can do is tell our personal stories. That has moved the needle in a couple of different ways. Underride guards is one example.”
CDOT is currently finishing up a safety project with the Mount Vernon truck escape ramp on I-70 eastbound near Genesee.
“We have much higher barriers, concrete barriers that separate the edge of the ramp from the adjacent embankment, which gives truckers a little more security when they’re using that,” CDOT spokesperson Tamara Rollison said. “If they miss the entry point, let’s say they’re going down really fast, they’ve lost control of their brakes and they missed the initial entry point, there is another entry point that they can get in to use this ramp.
“Plus, we will have better signage, we’ll have cameras, and we’ll just have better direction for them to let them know the ramp is available should they need to use it,” Rollinson said.
Work started last November and should finish by Memorial Day.
Nicole Fierro
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